OPINIONISTA: Let’s form an Electoral Reform Society

As ANC members, we watched with dismay when the candidate lists full of Gupta and Watson deployees were sworn in as Members of Parliament in Cape Town. Those who had illusions of a clean ANC candidate list were disappointed, but not surprised. The candidate list brought regrets to others who voted for the ANC in the hope that President Cyril Ramaphosa would clean the state, and clean the government.

However, the deployment from Luthuli House to parliamentary committees is worrisome. The deployment of Supra Mahumapelo – the former premier of North West, and a close confidant of the Guptas – as a chairperson of the tourism committee is a prime example. Mahumapelo destroyed the economy in North West and stands accused of allowing the Guptas to maraud the province with impunity. He was removed as a result of rolling protests by the people of North West.

We then have former minister of communications Faith Muthambi, who stands accused of working hand-in-glove with the Guptas, even sharing board and Cabinet minutes with them. Muthambi drained SABC resources to near bankruptcy to fund the Gupta-controlledTV station.

We are the prisoners of unaccountable MPs, who have shown us – the voters – that they can even keep the president as their prisoner. They control him, he cannot control them. What needs to be done is that we revive South Africa’s history of struggle for freedom, so that we achieve democratic accountability of government of the people, for the people, by the people. This means that we as voters must choose MPs ourselves, and take away that power from party headquarters, which in the case of the ANC is rotten.

We need electoral reform so that we have One Person One Vote for electing individual Members of Parliament. The current system is One Person One Vote for choosing a political party, and you are then at the mercy of internal dynamics of your respective political party. When your political party is captured, your vote is captured. As a voter you want to vote for somebody you know and trust rather than to be given a list of crooks, knowingly or unknowingly.

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